Your Guide to Cheshire SLANT 2018

YOUR GUIDE
TO CHESHIRE
SLANT 2018
4 JUST SO FESTIVAL
A weekend of fun for
kids – from the Wild
Rumpus team
5 WILD WORLDS
Animal magic for
culture vultures
at Chester
6 CLONTER OPERA
High culture meets
agriculture in a
converted barn
7 NIGHT LIGHTS
Everything is
illuminated at
Magical Woodland
LIVE MUSIC – THEATRE & COMEDY – AL FRESCO THEATRE – FESTIVAL FUN – EVENTS FOR CHILDREN
BLUEDOT
Scenes from
the festival at
Jodrell Bank
More details,
page 3
Inside this
2018 guide
Interviews, news and
17 UNIQUE EVENTS
in unexpected
settings
FOR MORE DETAILS ON ALL THE LISTED EVENTS, GO TO VISITCHESHIRE.COM/SLANT

SLANT: Cheshire
IN PRAISE OF COLOUR
Left: the chapterhouse at Chester
Cathedral transformed by a striking
installation from British artist Liz West
Far right: music at last year’s Bluedot
1093
Height
The date of the
earliest parts of
Chester Cathedral
89m at
of the
Lovell Telescope
Jodrell Bank
2018 A year of
northern lights
Cheshire is unique – an
exceptionally beautiful
British landscape; a county
of rich heritage; and a
creative hotbed. The Slant
festival offers a year-round
programme of arts and
culture, across a range of
Cheshire’s outstanding
and unusual settings.
Here’s the plan: you could
catch world-class live
music and cutting-edge
science stars in the shadow
of the Lovell Telescope.
You could experience opera
and classical performance
in the middle of a farmer’s
field. The whole family
could get together for a
Wild Rumpus fiesta with
outdoor pillow fights, circus
acts and midnight feasts.
In this special guide,
discover a place where
community spirit is a
creative force – from
Chester’s Storyhouse arts
hub, to Macclesfield’s
“repurposed” venues. It’s
a place where rural and
industrial traditions come
together, where inspirational
women are celebrated, and
where contemporary
art talents create work in
ancient settings – check out
the virtual reality dance
installation Salt, at the Lion
Salt Works, near Marston,
to see how workers toiled.
You can find the zoo
turned into a vast creative
playground – or woodland
transformed by lighting.
Because Cheshire’s Slant
festival covers all the angles.
Spring highlights
ADA.ADA.ADA
Touring Cheshire in June
Ada Lovelace was a spirited
Victorian socialite, the only
legitimate child of Lord Byron
(who died when she was
eight), and a tech pioneer
– she wrote the world’s first
complex algorithm for Charles
Babbage’s Analytical Engine,
in 1843. She died aged just 36,
but this performance piece, part
of the Shift series of sciencethemed
events, reclaims Ada’s
place in history and offers
inspiration for new generations.
It merges monologue, interactive
storytelling and digital design
– Ada’s LED-illuminated dress
is a star in its own right.
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Storyhouse, Chester
May 5–July 8
Chester’s new arts hub,
Storyhouse, opened in 2017
but already feels like an
institution. Situated in the shell
of the city’s former 1930s Odeon
cinema, this bright, accessible,
multi-level venue is put to good
use with kids gathering in the
enchantingly designed library,
an eclectic mix of films in the
boutique cinema and a Levantine
restaurant. This spring sees the
new stage version of Stephen
Sondheim’s iconic musical A Little
Night Music being performed
on the main stage.
BARNABY FESTIVAL
Macclesfield, various venues
June 15-24
Macclesfield’s biennial
celebration has a deep-rooted
history – it’s named for the
Feast of St Barnabas, and until
the 1980s, this was a holiday
period for the town’s factory
workers and their families. In
2010, the festival was revived
through local support. Things
kick off in June with 15 live acts
playing across 15 venues; there’s
a Saturday parade and works
from more than 20 visual and
digital artists, including Lumen
prizewinner Zarah Hussain’s
special commission, Invisible
Threads, at the Silk Museum.
GROSVENOR PARK
OPEN AIR THEATRE
Chester
July 6-August 16
The noise of popping corks,
picnics being unpacked and
happy audiences is the defining
sound of Chester’s summer
at this much-loved open air
theatre. This year, Shakespeare’s
Much Ado About Nothing and
The Tempest play alongside
Bryony Lavery’s new adaptation
of Swallows and Amazons.
Bluedot
festival
Jodrell Bank Observatory
July 19-22
“TO EXPLORE the frontiers of
human advancement. . . To highlight
the fragility of planet Earth. . .” Bluedot
festival matches its stratospherical
ambition with a stellar 2018 bill (from
the Chemical Brothers to physicist
and Radio 4 science presenter Jim
Al-Khalili), and a spectacular
setting – the grounds of the deep
space observatory at Jodrell Bank
in Cheshire. These are overlooked
by the iconic Lovell Telescope,
responsible for the discoveries that
altered our understanding of the
universe, including our own planet
– the “blue dot” of the title.
For Professor Teresa Anderson,
director of the University of
Manchester’s Discovery Centre
at Jodrell Bank and co-curator of
the festival’s science programme,
the giant telescope is a focal point.
“It’s got this monolithic appeal,” she
says. “It’s like holding a festival at
Stonehenge – except the telescope is
even bigger than the stones.”
This year the event opens with
The Blue Planet in Concert, featuring
The Slant
festival creates a
lovely umbrella that
encompasses the
varied cultural
events taking place
throughout Cheshire.
It’s also galvanising
– presenting exciting
new opportunities
for artists. LIZ WEST
‘It’s like holding
a festival at
Stonehenge’
composer and conductor George
Fenton with the Hallé Orchestra.
Among other performers is DJ Gilles
Peterson, who embodies bluedot’s
experimental ethos.
There’s also the Flaming Lips,
while reformed ‘90s dream-poppers
Slowdive may encourage a little
shoegazing among all the stargazing.
Scissor Sister Ana Matronic will be
DJing and hosting The Future
Then: talks inspired by the 50th
anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s
2001: A Space Odyssey – crossover
curation that breaks down the
division between arts and sciences.
What the artists say...
With its close
proximity to the Peak
District, Macclesfield
straddles the
boundaries between
rural and urban
settings. For me, and
many other artists, this
interplay of landscape
constantly informs the
work. MIKE THORPE
2 Slant 2018 For more details on all the listed events, go to visitcheshire.com/slant
Slant 2018 3

SLANT: Cheshire
BALANCING ACT
Left: the Bullzini Family will be
performing at Just So 2018
1,000
acres
acres of
landscaped
parkland at
Tatton Park
at Chester
Zoo, one of
125the UK’s largest
Creating a bit
of a rumpus
Just So
Just So festival, August 17-19,
Rode Hall and Gardens
hat if there was a
weekend that was all
W about families, with
great music, theatre, storytelling,
incredible baby experiences?
Also, something that harks back
to childhood, with pillow fights
and midnight feasts?”
Rowan Hoban is relating the
inspirations for Wild Rumpus,
the widely acclaimed Cheshirebased
family festival visionaries.
Both Hoban and co-director
Sarah Bird loved taking their
young families to arts and culture
events, but were less keen on
the way most places sidelined
children’s activities.
“We wanted to make the family
activities the main event,” says
Bird. “When you do stuff together,
it creates memories that become
part of the fabric of family life.”
Hoban and Bird planned their first
Wild Rumpus event nine years ago.
The enthusiastic response allowed
them to leave their jobs to become
full-time festival producers.
Now, in 2018, Wild Rumpus is a
year-round organisation with global
links. Its varied events include the
flagship Just So festival, in the
grounds of Georgian country house
Rode Hall (“a stunning location with
diverse spaces,” says Hoban).
Wild Rumpus events thrive in
unconventional settings. For the past
five years, the team’s HQ has been
a woodland called “Whirligig”, with
a horsebox for an office, and a
barnyard artists’ studio teeming
with fabulous scenery.
This year’s Just So festival includes
Tribal Tournament, the multi-arts
Flamingo Lounge, a Playground of
Illusions, circus workshops and
much more. Bird grins: “When you
take people out of their usual routine,
that’s when the magic happens.”
Summer highlights
ILLUSTRATION: GRACE HELMER
TRACTION AT CREWE
Crewe, July 7
This free weekend of futuristic
fun is firmly pitched at all the
family, with an array of actionpacked
live performance,
gaming projects, and STEM
(that’s science, technology,
engineering and maths)
workshops to please everyone.
The most eye-catching event
of the weekend will almost
certainly be the Great SpareParts
Parade, a sort of cross between
Mad Max and Wacky Races, in
which a cornucopia of crackpot
contraptions chug their way
through the town of Crewe.
THE CHESTER MYSTERY PLAYS
Chester Cathedral
June 27-July 14
Chester’s Mystery Plays are a
rare treat, with historic origins
(the first scripts were written by
14th-century monks at Chester’s
former abbey, and the shows
are now produced once every
five years). They’ve also earned
an international following. The
narrative is drawn from Bible
stories, the cast and crew are
gender-balanced, the music
score is original – and the full
stage set, constructed within
the medieval nave of Chester
Cathedral, makes this an even
more memorable experience.
WELCOME TO THE 16TH
‘SCENT-URY’
Little Moreton Hall
Until October 2018
Sniff out this sensory exploration
of Tudor life – and its various
weird and wonderful smells, at
this atmospheric 16th-century
house and gardens. The Tudors
believed that air was one of
life’s “six non-natural things”
and should be controlled to
ensure good health. Families can
learn about how their bodies
interacted with the environment,
join in the “You Smell!” trail, and
get a whiff of herbs and spices
(and damp wool and sweat).
THE TATTON COSTUME BALL
Tatton Park, until November 4
The neo-classical house set
within Tatton Park’s grand
estate was once a famously
lavish party venue. This
exhibition explores the 1897
ball thrown by former owner
Wilbraham Egerton and his wife
Alice, Duchess of Buckingham
and Chandos. Discover its finery,
hospitality and the hard work
that went on behind the scenes.
While you’re visiting, peruse
the Egerton family’s private
collection of music and art,
including 18th-century paintings
by Venetian artist Canaletto
– a future Tatton Park Slant
programme will include a
major Canaletto exhibition.
ANIMAL
MAGIC
Wild Worlds at
Chester Zoo
Events from May 26-September 30
CHESTER ZOO is home to 21,000
animals, as well as ground-breaking
conservation and science projects.
This summer, the zoo’s Wild Worlds
programme will appeal to culture
vultures of all ages, too, with British
artists creating attractions inspired
by its environment and ethos.
As you arrive, murals by the artists
Badgers of Bohemia, famed for their
wildlife-themed prints (right), create
a festival feel, with works depicting a
variety of habitats. Once inside, look
out for Awe Kids: a vibrant
collaboration between multimedia
artist and image-maker Fabric Lenny,
beatboxer Jason Singh and sound
artist Steve Symons. They’ll be
sampling the sounds of plants to
create incredible music. Another
musical spin comes from “science
rapper” Jon Chase, who uses hip-hop
wordplay to make learning fun.
On some dates, visitors will meet
VIP Puppets’ enchanting creation,
I find the
exciting aspect of
contemporary Chester
is its courage to
explore the pluralism
of its histories and
the development
of new ideas,
artwork, architecture
and culture.
DAVID COTTERRELL
‘Wildlife murals
greet visitors’
Dolly the giraffe. Standing 4m tall,
she interacts with visitors during
her walkabouts. Children can “feed”
her, then take her “giraffe poo” to a
lab, where they’ll receive certificates
for their research.
Wild Worlds offers imaginative
places for a rest, too, such as the
Talking Chairs sculpture/sound
installations by artist Jane Revitt.
Lounge here to learn about the plants
grown for the zoo’s animals and the
reason that flamingos are pink.
This summer, Oakfield Manor, the
grade II-listed home of Chester Zoo
founder George Mottershead reopens
after a refurb, with a new garden
room and impressive dining facilities.
What the artists say...
My work
explores crossovers
between digital
coding and traditional
making. Cheshire
provides inspiring
experiences as well as
truly unique views,
and wide open spaces
such as Tatton Park.
GEMMA LATHAM
4 Slant 2018 For more details on all the listed events, go to visitcheshire.com/slant
Slant 2018 5

SLANT: Cheshire
SINGING FOR SUPPER
Left: a recent performance
of ‘Die Fledermaus’
1974 ‘Operatic
The year that
Clonter held
its inaugural
Picnics’
500 Woodland
metres of path
lit up by 30,000
lumens in the Magic
festival
Sweet Moo-sic
Clonter opera
theatre
Events from May 19 to December 15
eep in the Cheshire
countryside, arias ring out
Dfrom a converted cattle shed.
The voices carrying them belong not
to opera-fancying farmers but to
some of the most promising singers
around. And their audience is made
up of passionate music lovers who
come from far afield.
This is Clonter, where high
culture meets agriculture, and its
surprising location and imaginative
programming are a perfect match
for Slant. The story of this 400-seat
auditorium began in 1974, when dairy
farmer Jeffery Lockett and his wife,
Anita, hosted a charity concert in one
of their barns. Advised to come armed
with bug lotion, spectators sat on hay
bales. The event proved such a
resounding success that the Locketts’
“Operatic Picnics” became annual
events, and plans were laid to
convert the cattle shed into a theatre.
“We have a papier-mâché
cow’s head hidden high up in the
auditorium to remind us that we
have the cows to thank for the
theatre,” explains joint CEO Isabella
Lockett, Jeffery and Anita’s daughter,
who now co-runs the family
business with her sister Amanda.
An informal atmosphere still
reigns at Clonter, with visitors
encouraged to bring picnics,
which can be enjoyed all year
round indoors.
If the welcome stands out, so does
the quality entertainment – now
extending to jazz, gospel and folk.
“Our real raison d’être is to act as a
stepping stone for emerging singers,”
Lockett explains. Simon Keenlyside,
Mary Plazas and Amanda Roocroft
are among the now glitzy names who
came to Clonter as students. “It’s
always amazing to go to London and
see an 8ft poster in the Underground
of someone who performed here
a couple of decades ago.”
Autumn highlights
WARRINGTON
CONTEMPORARY ARTS
FESTIVAL
Warrington, various venues
Until September
The culmination of a year-long
programme of exhibitions,
events and installations around
Cheshire’s largest town, all
under the theme “The History
of the Future”. This year’s
highlights include the
environmental inspirations
of festival Open winner Tracy
Hill’s Haecceity, Juan Covelli
and Neale Willis’s joint exhibition
How to Dust the Surface, and
a solo show by sculptress
Hannah Leighton Boyce.
MAELSTROM
King Charles Tower Gardens,
Chester, until October 27
Artist David Cotterrell’s hypnotic
public installation projects
light and animations on to the
canal surface. The work is the
artist’s attempt to “represent
the magnificence of these aweinspiring
natural phenomena”
and his “whirlpool” images
create the illusion of flowing
and shifting currents while the
historic site reflects the city’s
evolving relationship with its
waterways. This magical work is
viewable after dusk.
LOST VOICES
Quarry Bank, Styal
Until October
While 1918’s Representation
of the People Act finally gave
some women the right to vote,
its terms of status/age/finances
still excluded the majority at the
time. This series of installations
is set around Quarry Bank’s
beautifully preserved heritage
site (including a former textile
mill of the Industrial Revolution),
and gives resonant voice
to several local women who
weren’t eligible to vote
and might otherwise have
been forgotten by history.
THE LANTERNS
Chester Zoo, selected dates from
November 23 to December 23
Chester Zoo’s popular and
magical festive night-time
trail returns. At twilight, the
zoo is transformed into a
world full of illumination and
spellbinding performances.
Follow the route around the
zoo, carrying lanterns, to
discover an enchanting world
of life-size animal lanterns
and special festive effects.
The perfect, heart-warming
family event for Christmas.
For more details on all
the listed events, go to
visitcheshire.com/slant
MAGIC
WOODLAND
If you go down
to the woods
tonight
Blakemere Village
October 20-November 2
MODERN ART has become an illuminating
experience. London, York
and Aberdeen all host major festivals
of light as the nights draw in over
autumn and winter. Cheshire offers
a refreshing alternative to these
urban backdrops in Magic Woodland,
an intimate event that uses natural
woodland as a “living canvas” for
light installations.
“We wanted to use light to show
the fantastic beauty of the trees at
Blakemere Woods,” says founder
Steve Birchall. “The woodland being
a real, changing entity adds so much
to the experience.”
By day, the 15-acre wood, in a
former sand quarry, is a tranquil
spot. It’s easy to forget that the main
road is a short distance away. The
initial bright idea for Magical
Woodland came during a bush-camp
As a visual artist
in the northwest, I’ve
explored threatened
wetland habitats. My
installation Haecceity,
at Warrington Museum
and Art Gallery, offers
the audience an
alternative perspective
of mossland sites.
TRACY HILL
‘There’s a sense
of wonder’
night, when the organisers were
struck by the dramatic effect of
torchlight playing on the trees.
The first Magic Woodland
event took place in 2016, and this
year Birchall plans to take its design
to new levels, with interactive
installations and digital art set to
original music. One of the local
artists transforming the setting is
Andy Benfield, creative director of
the Travelling Light Circus collective.
“It’s a fairytale setting,” he says.
“There’s a sense of wonder, wrapped
up with nature. We want to bring
magic back to people of all ages.”
What the artists say...
My SpareParts
Festival aims to
celebrate the
incredibly rich
transport heritage
of Cheshire. The
reception you
get here is inspiring;
a real can-do attitude
and a lot of humour.
ADAM McGUIGAN
Designed by Bridge Studio at News UK
6 Slant 2018 For more details on all the listed events, go to visitcheshire.com/slant
Slant 2018 7

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